Rocky Mountain Trench

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Rocky Mountain Trench
Kinbasket Lake lies in the Rocky Mountain Trench
Floor elevation	600–900 m (2,000–3,000 ft)
Length	1,600 km (1,000 mi)
Width	3–16 km (2–10 mi)
Geography
Coordinates	54°30′N 122°30′W / 54.5°N 122.5°W / 54.5; -122.5

The Rocky Mountain Trench, also known as the Valley of a Thousand Peaks or simply the Trench, is a large

Although some of its

The Northern Rocky Mountain Trench is closely aligned with the Tintina Trench near the British Columbia-Yukon border at 60 degrees north latitude, and the two trenches could arguably be classified as one and the same - or 'extensions' of each other. The Tintina Trench extends further north-westward through the Yukon into Alaska. The visible expression of the two trenches is lost where they plunge under the boreal forests of the Liard Plain proximate to the small communities of Watson Lake, Yukon and Lower Post, BC. The highest point in the northern Trench is Sifton Pass at an elevation of about 1,010 m (3,310 ft) near the bend of Scarcity Creek.

Geology

Right-lateral

First Nations have traditionally always travelled the northern Trench. There are several post-European contact travels up the northern Trench - often of large proportion. The Trench here remains mostly wild, and the northern 300 km (190 mi) is essentially without roads, excepting a few cat trails for fire, outfitters, or logging. It is due to several turns of fate,^{[clarification needed]} and strategic administrative decisions since 1824,^{[clarification needed]} that the most natural land transportation corridor in northern British Columbia has been left in a wild state. On many government maps produced since 1897,^{[clarification needed]} indications of a passable trail have been published. However, with changes in the terrain caused by beaver dams or forest fires, and despite maintenance by guide-outfitters, the trail from Fox Lake north is often hard to find, or obliterated to all but indigenous and experienced Kaska natives. It may be more commonly used as an aviation route today.

The northern trench from the

The Kaska Dena culture of Fort Ware and Lower Post refer to their ancestral use of the 300 km (190 mi) natural route as The Trail of The Ancient Ones. They also call it the Davie Trail honoring David Braconnier, the founding chief of the community at Ware (Fort Ware - originally called Kwadacha which the HBC named Whitewater Post)

1797 - John Finlay records the forks of the Finlay and Parsnip Rivers and ventures part way up each river. The Finlay River later comes to bear his name.

1823 to 1825 - Samuel Black was sent by the HBC north through Finlay Forks to The Fox River (Kwadacha) and returned later that season. He narrowly missed being the first white person to go all the way up the Northern Trench to the Liard River but chose not to listen to his guide - heading north westward seeking the source of the Finlay River instead. He travels far enough NW to discover the headwaters of another Trench tributary - The Turnagain River. Natives there find a marker left by Black and report it to historic Fort Halkett on the Liard River. [1]

1831 - John Macleod of the HBC records the mouth of the Kechika River emptying out of the northern end of the Trench into the Liard near the BC-Yukon border.

1872 - Capt. William F. Butler ascends part of the Finlay River and records both the Fox River and Fox Lake to the north (Ft. Ware / Kwadacha was not yet established.)

1897 to 1898 – The Canadian government sends a police patrol under Inspector Moodie to map a possible supply route from the Peace River to the Yukon - specifically Dawson City. The patrol, assumed to have perished, eventually arrived at Fort Selkirk. They proved the viability of the route and produced a surviving map of it. (Yukon Archives)

1898 – McGregor's book The Klondike Rush Though Edmonton summarizes various sources (papers) saying up to 45 parties were reported along the route from Fox River to Sylvestre's Landing. There was also a reported drive of cattle on this route (echoed in Moodie's reports and in Kaska oral history.)

1906 – A North West Mounted Police patrol under field supervision of Inspector Constantine began the construction of the Police Trail westward from Hudson Hope and then northward up the Northern Trench from HBC's post at Fort Graham.

1907 - British Columbia Premier R. McBride intervened and asked Canada to direct the police resources to connect with the more westerly Telegraph Trail route. Under protest, the NWMP field team did so. That trail was soon abandoned due to its non-viable character. The political route departure from Fort Graham westward added 400 rugged snowy kilometres to the total distance without going any favorable ground or measurable distance closer to the north. The Davie Trail is noted to be excellent for wintering horse due to low snow accumulations.

1912 - British Columbia Magazine - prospector Bower reports Sifton Pass as the most eventual and most practicable for a railway form the Fraser River to the Yukon.

1914 - Premier McBride advocates a railway on Insp. Moodie's route according to B. Kenelly in a pamphlet 'The British Columbia Peace. Fort St John' 1936.

1926 - Whitewater Post is established by HBC. Whitewater is the translation of Kwadacha, a nearby river.

1930 to 1931 - British Columbia Department of Public Works investigates a road route over Sifton Pass.

1934 -

1942 - February a final decision was reached regarding the A, B, and C routes for a northern Highway. It will connect the

1957 - Swedish industrial savant Axel Wenner-Gren advocates resource mega-developments for the Peace River area. Among his proposals he envisions a monorail up the Northern Trench. Some area proposals came to partial fruition but the monorail did not.

1960 to 1967 - The Government of BC declines the Northern Trench as their strategic railway choice, favoring instead a route to the west similar to the telegraph route. Part of the reason is that the Lower Finlay and Parsnip River portions of the Northern Trench would be flooded by the damming of the Peace River. Reservoir land acquisition commences. Their selected westerly rail route - the Dease Lake Extension along the A Route - has been, in part, abandoned, and in lesser part been reopened to Takla Siding for logging use.

1964 - US Congress tables the

1971 - Sir Ranulph Fiennes descends the Trench from Kechika mouth - mostly on foot, partly solo as part of his circum-polar expedition [2]. For this and other feats he is later recorded by Guinness Book of Records as the World's 'Greatest Living Explorer.'

1981 - 'Skook' Davidson; long time outfitter proposes a 'federal' national park in the Northern Trench.

1998 - After several years of round table discussions The British Columbia Government takes first legislative steps to establish a 'provincial' Muskwa-Kechika Management Area [3] It covers an area considerably larger than the floor of the Trench and its immediate tributaries.

1999 - Karsten Heuer completes the final section of the Y2Y hike (Yellowstone to Yukon) at Lower Post [4]

2000 - Extension of the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area into the Northern Trench. Much of the Northern Rocky Mountain Trench's furthest reach is within this British Columbia Protected Area. Significant exposure is given to the M-KMA in the November 2008 National Geographic Magazine as a follow-up to their partial funding of a recent expedition to Gataga Pass. [5]

In 2009 context the Northern Trench could have, and might yet, become the preferred route for the 120-year-old concept of a

The aforementioned basement ramp along which orogeny-related thrust faulting and subsequent strike-slip and normal faulting occurred is probably associated with the ancient continental shelf of Paleozoic and Mesozoic time.

Geography

The southern Rocky Mountain Trench comprises approximately one half of the Trench in British Columbia and includes three regions, the

There are four geographic segments of the Southern Rocky Mountain Trench:

1. The segment of the Trench encompassing the uppermost court of the Fraser River from east of Prince George and continuing southeastward to the town of
   Valemount is known as the Robson Valley, named after Mount Robson
   which overlooks its southern end. Valemount is the Westerly portal to the Yellowhead Pass.
2. From Valemount and Canoe Southeastward to the eastern egress of Rogers Pass at Donald, BC just north of the town of Golden the Trench cradles the waters of Kinbasket Lake the reservoir created by Mica Dam; this region before the reservoir was part of the route of the interprovincial highway, once known as the Big Bend Highway, prior to the 1960s opening of the Roger's Pass section of the Trans-Canada.
3. The Trench from Golden extending SE to the headwaters of the Columbia River at Columbia Lake is known as the Columbia Valley. Golden is the westerly portal to the Kicking Horse Pass on Highway #1 eastbound to Alberta.
4. The southernmost Canadian part of the Trench is the core of a region known as the
   East Kootenay, comprising the upper of the two Canadian portions of the valley of the Kootenay River. Here, near Cranbrook, British Columbia
   , the Trench is much wider than to the northwest, forming more of a broad basin than the U-shaped valley which typifies most of the Trench elsewhere from Columbia Lake northwards to the Liard. This segment bifurcates near Wasa 100 km north of the US border. The off-shooting western fork contains the City of Cranbrook affords access to the nearby City of Kimberley. Elko is the westerly portal to the Crowsnest Pass on Highway 3 eastbound to Alberta.

The southward transborder extension of the Trench into Montana is the primary containment for Lake Koocanusa, a Kootenay River reservoir created by the Libby Dam near Libby, Montana.^[1]

Culture and economy

The large valley and tributaries have always offered an economy based on ranching and logging. This has been supplemented by fortuitous locations of several

Tourism has become an active force in the economy. The Southern Trench is also known for a number of ski resorts in the trench or in the nearby tributary valleys. These destinations include Fairmont, Panorama, Kimberley, Purden, Kicking Horse and the original Bugaboo heli-ski lodge. Numerous other ski touring and back country lodges are also found here. The summer sports of golf, boating, fishing, and hiking round out the appeal to a growing weekend and permanent recreational population.

Hunting, fishing, off-roading, and camping will continue to be attractive pastimes. These include guided activities and individual pursuit of the area.

The generous mix of low elevation, good climate, fine scenery, diverse recreation and resort accommodation has fostered a vacation-based real estate industry for communities and rural areas surrounding

• Lower Post, British Columbia
• Fort Ware
  (Kwadacha)
• Ingenika Point
• Mesilinka (submerged)
• Fort Grahame (submerged)
• Mackenzie, British Columbia
• Holmes River, British Columbia
• McBride, British Columbia
• Tête Jaune Cache, British Columbia
• Valemount, British Columbia
• Boat Encampment (submerged)
• Golden, British Columbia
• Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia
• Invermere, British Columbia
• Fairmont Hot Springs, British Columbia
• Canal Flats, British Columbia
• Kimberley, British Columbia
• Cranbrook, British Columbia
• Eureka, Montana
• Whitefish, Montana
• Kalispell, Montana

References

• Akrigg, HP & GPV, 1997, British Columbia Place Names, 3rd Edition, UBC Press
• Black, Samuel, 1780–1841.A Voyage of Discovery from Rocky Mountain Portage on Peace River to the Source of Finlays Branch and North-Westward, 13 May to 23 June 1824: British Columbia Archives MS-0619
• Bally, A.W., Gordy, P., and Stewart, G. 1966. Structure, seismic data, and orogenic evolution of the southern Canadian Rockies. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology 14: 337–381.
• Bowes, G.E. 1963. Peace River Chronicles, Prescott Publishing
• Cushman, Dan 1966. The Great North Trail McGraw-Hill: 383 pp.
• Gabrielse, H. 1985. Major dextral transcurrent displacements along the Northern Rocky Mountain Trench and related lineaments in north-central British Columbia. Geological Society of America Bulletin 96: 1–14.
• Gadd, Ben, Handbook of the Canadian Rockies, 2nd Edition, Corax Press 830 pp.
• Gunderson, Eric L. personal archives, 1980–2009
• Henderson, G.C. 1959. A summary of the regional structure and stratigraphy of the Rocky Mountain Trench in Holland, S.S., chairman, Symposium on the Rocky Mountain Trench. Canadian Mining and Metallurgical Bulletin 565 (62): 322–327.
• Leech, G.B. 1959. The southern part of the Rocky Mountain Trench, in Holland, S.S., chairman, Symposium on the Rocky Mountain Trench. Canadian Mining and Metallurgical Bulletin 565 (62): 327–333.
• van der Velden, A.J. and Cook, F.A. 1996. Structure and tectonic development of the southern Rocky Mountain Trench. Tectonics 15 (3): 517–544.
• White, Bob 1983, Bannock and Beans - Memoirs of the Bedaux Expedition and Northern BC Packtrails, Piapot History Book Group and Gateway Publishing Co. Ltd.